Rolando Hinojosa-Smith intends each of his works, regardless of genre, to form a part of a lifelong novel which he has called "Klail City Death Trip."He has created a fictional world, Klail City, Belken County, Texas, located somewhere in the lower Rio Grande valley--filled with memorable characters whose ordinary lives take on tragicomic proportions as they go about their daily tasks, dealing with conflicts arising out of generations of racial strife and cultural misunderstanding.

Born in Mercedes, Texas, Hinojosa-Smith is the son of Manuel Guzman Hinojosa, a Mexican-American, and Carrie Effie Smith, an Anglo. His paternal grandparents were born in the United States. Their ancestors arrived in the lower Rio Grande valley in 1749 as part of the expedition of José Escandón when the area was part of Spain's northern frontier known as Nuevo Santander. After Mexico's independence from Spain in 1821, the Hinojosas gave their...